Monday, September 3, 2012

To sea - arrival in Kefallonia

Ayelet who run my lab and is a good fried went for an adventure with her family. They left Israel on their sailboat in April and started a trip along the eastern mediterranean: Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Croatia, Italy, and back through Greece. Throughout this six month trip they had friends join for periods of about a week. You can read about their adventures in their blog (in hebrew).

They had an open invitation for me, but somehow things were always busy. Few weeks ago Ayelet wrote me that the trip is nearing its end and so I need to act now. We set a date for early September and I started looking for flights.

We decided that we will meet in Kefallonia (or Cephalonia, or few other variations), one of the Ionian islands on the western side of Greece. After checking ferry schedules it was clear that flying there was better. I flow to Athens and from there connected to Kefallonia.

Take off from Tel Aviv

The second leg was in a small turboprop plane. I had a window seat, but sadly the window was next to the propellor and very dirty. And so the pictures of the takeoff from Athens or the islands are blurry.

Disembarking the plane in Kefallonia

We landed at 8 pm in a small airport. It was just after sunset. We disembarked and walked to the terminal. I collected my bag and went outside to wait for Ayelet and Udi. They arrived earlier that day in Fiskerado, a village on the northern tip of the island, while the airport was at the south-west of the island, about 60km away. They let me know in advance that they will rent a car and come pick me up. And so few minutes after I arrived they showed up in a small rental car.

The way was winded and went up and down hills that skirt the mountains in the middle of the island. At some point we saw a church all lit up on a far hillside, and saw fireworks from its yard. We stopped to ask what's the occasion, and learned that this was a test run to a large celebration that will take place on Friday night. We were warmly invited to join.

Continuing on our way we decided to stop of dinner as it was getting late. After some debates we stopped at a small taverna. The waiter was very nice and we had a nice meal with stuffed peppers, Greek salad, and platter of appetizers.

We arrived I Fiskardo. This was a relatively large yacht harbor that was jammed with boats. The water edge was packed with restaurants, and so most boats were essentially a touch away form the dinners. We found Ester, our boat, after what seemed to me quite a large number of parked boat.

I got a tour of the boat and essential functions (how to operate the restroom), i arranged my belonging in my cabin (a triangular bed, small storage, and a smallish piece of floor. we chatted a bit on the deck, and I went to sleep.